Disclaimer: This story is based on the Mistborn books by Branden Sanderson. The other characters in this story, though the world is based on Sanderson's books, belong to me solely. P.S. Remember to review the stories you read whether you like them or don't like them. It helps all of us to grow! Thanks and I hope you enjoy!

Edited by AuthorSwimmerPoet (Lots of Thanks to my Beta! If you've read this already try reading through it again. It may flow much better in some places)

Dekard Darbringer was the heir to the Darbringer legacy, those who started the Metallurgic Purge a millennia ago and rose to the top on the publication of the event. Ever since those days the Darbringers have been the epitome of the media industry and the money behind the government. The Metallurgic purge started when the people started to fear the Allomancers' ability to burn specific metals that they ingested to gain supernatural abilities and Feruchemists' ability passed down by the Terrismen of being able to store different attributes in metals called metal minds. Dekard's ancestors capitalized on the opportunity and became one of the most powerful families in existence, and that trend still carries to this day.

Dekard had been raised from the time he was born to hate all Allomancers and Feruchemists and to dedicate his life to their absolute annihilation. It was the night of his twenty-third birthday and he was only one year from becoming a partner with his father in the massive media conglomerate, so he had decided to go out for a few drinks, which turned into a lot of drinks. As the three men were beating him in the alley he was thinking how bad of an idea this night had been. One of the major down sides of being so wealthy is that it made you a very big target for the unlovely people who hung around the best places to get some drinks. He was beginning to wonder why these men hadn't just taken his wallet and ran yet. Why they seemed so eager to beat him to death. After one more really good punch to the stomach, that made Dekard release what little breath he still had, the men left him there on the cold, wet asphalt behind the bar to die. Dekard's life was passing him by as if he was fast forwarding through a recording of it, when he felt the sensation of some kind of reservoir of power within his stomach. He had never before felt what he was feeling but he knew what it was nonetheless; he could feel metal reserves waiting to be burned within him. How could this be happening? He thought, feeling the panic rise in his chest.

According to the law all children are supposed to go through a Snapping session when they are five. Dekard had thought that he had gone through a Snapping session where the men of the house had beaten him within an inch of his life to see if he would Snap and reveal himself to have some kind of Allomantic ability. Either he hadn't actually gone through one of these sessions or it hadn't been as severe as it should have been because he was now showing Allomantic abilities and his body was burning them naturally.

In that instant, teetering on the edge of consciousness, his body began to burn the trace amounts of pewter that were in his system from the pewter mugs that the old bar used; he felt his wounds start to become less intense. He knew that by burning pewter, his physical abilities would become enhanced and that his body would heal much more quickly. He was still passing out as he thought about the fact that he was what he hated and that he could not just give up and die in this moment because the pewter in his system would keep him alive. The last thing he saw were her bright green eyes before she said,

"He's over here! He's hurt pretty badly, but he seems to be burning pewter. We need to hurry…." then all faded to black.

When Dekard woke up, he could hear people, on the other side of the door to the strange room he was in, talking.

"We can't let him stay here, Ai! He is the enemy!"

"He was dying, Cam. I couldn't just leave him lying there to die…."

"Why not? How many of us has his family killed? You think that just because he is an Allomancer now that he will change?"

"His family will try to kill him now. You know that he can't go back there. He has nowhere to go!"

As Dekard was getting up to listen in more closely he bumped into the table beside his bed and knocked the metal cup off of it. A moment later those same bright-green eyes were at the door and Dekard noticed for the first time the bright, fire-red hair that that barely touched her shoulders and her pale skin and freckles. Behind her stood a man whom had much darker hair, jet black hair, dark brown eyes, and looked like he was from the far eastern side of the world. Dekard assumed he was the one she was calling Cam during the conversation he had just overheard.

"Hello! I'm glad to see you awake and looking better. My name is Ailyie but everyone just calls me Ai!"

Dekard just sat there silent and scornful, not saying a word. He was still feeling the displeasure of knowing he was an Allomancer and he assumed, based on the conversation he heard, that he was in the company of more Allomancers. The idea of it all was overwhelming and sickening. He could no longer feel any kind of metal reserves so he knew that he didn't have any in his system to burn. That fact made him feel a little better about the situation. Dekard was searching for a way out, but he could tell by the way his body felt that he hadn't had enough pewter to completely heal and he assumed that this "Cam" had kept Ai from administering any pewter into his system. Cam obviously didn't trust him. He was a smart man. Since Dekard couldn't do anything, he just sat there and kept silent.

After a moment of silence Cam spoke up. "See, Ai, I told you. You can see the contempt on his face. He either doesn't know how to hide it or doesn't care enough to. Leave him here to rot in his thoughts…."

At that Cam turned away and stormed into the darkness beyond the door where Dekard could no longer see him. Ai's shoulders dropped just slightly as her head followed suit and she turned away calling, "Camis, wait! I'm coming with you." She turned her head slightly towards Dekard and said,"Mr. Darbringer…. I hope that you can come to speak with us." Then as she turned to walk away she finished, "For you will not be accepted by your former family and friends and we may be all you have…." At that she closed the door behind her.

Dekard hadn't heard her lock the door behind her, but he didn't know who else might be with the two. He also didn't have all of his strength back yet. The Hazekillers, a government organization named after an ancient idea of people trained solely to kill Allomancers, would come looking for him in a day or so anyway; with the tracking device embedded in his ankle it wouldn't take them long to find him. Then they would destroy the band of metal users and he would go back to the life he was supposed to have.

Over the past few days, Dekard had met at least three other people and had seen several more wandering around outside his room and down the various hallways. Dekard, being trained as a Hazekiller like his family before him, used his training, he carefully observed everyone he met, deduced their abilities through careful observation and committed names and faces to memory. He had learned that Camis and Ailyie were both Twinborn. That meant that they not only had one Allomantic ability, but they also had a Feruchemical ability as well.

Camis was what was called a Soother/Steelrunner, which meant that he could burn brass as his Allomantic ability, giving him the ability to pull on people's emotions, dampening those emotions. He could also store the attribute of speed in his steelminds as his Feruchemical ability. Dekard had noticed this in the way that Camis always seemed to be moving at a muted pace. With Feruchemy one had to store the attribute in a metal mind to later draw upon for a boost to that attribute. This meant that Camis could move with unnatural speed, though Feruchemical abilities are a direct correlation meaning that one can only draw out what one has put in. The powerful thing about Feruchemy is that there is no limit to how much can be pulled out. For instance, Camis could pull out all of his stored up speed in one massive burst and move faster than anyone could even imagine, though that would only give him a very short amount of time at that speed.

Ailyie also had one Allomantic and one Feruchemical ability, though she was something special called a Compounder. This meant that her Allomantic and Feruchemical metals were the same, which Dekard knew made her a very powerful adversary, especially since her metal was chromium. When burned, chromium allowed an Allomancer to deplete the other Allomantic reserves of any Allomancer that they touched. It did the same thing that burning aluminum did except to a target instead of to oneself. The power of a Compounder came out in their Feruchemical ability though. In the instance of Ailyie, she could store up luck in her chromium minds, but being a Compounder when she drew out that attribute she gained it back at tenfold, giving her the ability to become massively luckier than any other chromium ferring could possibly become. This made her a very huge threat, even against Hazekillers, though Dekard knew that the Hazekillers would outnumber the metal users in this small hideout and would not find it very hard to dispatch of them all quickly.

A man he met named Severith astounded him greatly, though. Severith was a Pewterarm that Dekard had met a few days ago. Sev, as his friends called him, was not the ordinary Pewterarm. Most people who found out that they were pewter mistings would forego most kinds of mental training and just focus on powering through all situations that presented themselves. Sev had a different philosophy. He believed that the key to true strength was intelligence, and he had plenty of that to go around. Sev had done a very good job of hiding his alomancy as a child and as a teenager. He attended the most prestigious schools in Dardenel, the capital of the world. Sev had studied several different subjects and was about to graduate at the top of his class when he had finally been caught. That was when he started running.

Then Dekard was torn from his thoughts by the sound of a loud explosion and the subsequent ringing in his ears and then he smiled. The Hazekillers had finally tracked him down and soon he would be free of these metal users.

As soon as the explosion went off Sev jumped out of his bed and downed a vial of his pewter/alcohol solution and began to burn it. He descended the stairwell with the grace of a cat and when Sev finally reached the bottom of the stairwell he looked into the open area passed the door. In there he saw the small special operations team and knew instantly that they were Hazekillers. He knew that they would be wearing special body armor that would make it hard for him to hurt them without getting hurt himself. He also saw them heading for the wing of the complex where the children slept, so though it seemed illogical, he rushed at the Hazekillers, trying to give the children time to escape out the back way. He knew Camis would already be in there evacuating them, but he would still need some time.

The rear guard Hazekiller turned as he registered the slap of boots on the floor. As he leveled his aluminum alloy rifle, Sev flared his pewter giving himself a slight burst in physical ability and grabbed the man's wrist, crushing it in his grip as he pulled the weapon free. He didn't have long to react the other Hazekillers would be on him, so he quickly grabbed the butt of the rifle and rammed it as hard as he could against the Hazekiller's throat, collapsing his trachea. He then lifted the man in full body armor off the ground as if he weighed nothing at all and threw him towards some other Hazekillers while he moved into the center of the group to keep them from firing their weapons at him for fear of hitting each other. Sev's tactical sense proved correct in this instance, because as soon as he moved into position, the remaining six Hazekillers slung their rifles on their backs and pulled out their dueling canes, the ancient mark of a Hazekiller. Sev had a large reserve of pewter left, but even with that the situation looked dire. He felt that at least he would die fighting, knowing that he was giving Camis the time he needed to save the children.

The first Hazekiller moved and attacked. Sev, with his enhanced speed, strength, and agility, easily dodged the attack and readied himself for a follow up from another Hazekiller. Hazekillers were professional misting and ferring killers and they knew how to fight a pewterarm. However, Sev was smart and knew how to fight Hazekillers. When the follow up attack finally came, Sev reversed his stance and grabbed the dueling cane, then slammed his forearm into the back of the man's elbow, breaking it and taking the dueling cane in one swift motion. He then broke the weapon that he had freed over the first Hazekillers helmet, shattering the helmet and knocking the man to the ground to never get up again. That left the other four Hazekillers and no time to prepare for the volley of attacks that began to connect with Sev's body. Thankfully, the pewter was keeping him from going unconscious and he was still giving the Hazekiller's a run for their money when one of them whipped out an aluminum dagger. In that moment, when Sev thought he was about to finally die, he heard the rapid succession of four quick shots from a gun and saw each of the remaining Hazekillers fall to the ground with a bullet hole in the front of their visors.

"Good thing I showed up when I did, Sev!" He heard the melodic voice behind him say as he turned around to see Ai standing there with her two antique six shooters leveled.

"Yes I would say so, Ai, though a few minutes ago wouldn't have hurt either," he said as he began to walk towards her. "Did Camis get all the kids out?"

"Yeah, I believe so, I was heading down here to get Darbringer and make sure he was okay."

"Why do you care so much about that man, Ai? He is nothing but trouble. These Hazekillers being here is proof of that."

"You don't know that he brought them here…."

"Come on now, Ai. Think about it. The Hazekillers have never been able to find us before. They are here for him."

"That's why we have to help him! They'll kill him, you know they will."

"I know, I know…. Let's go… Camis is not going to be happy when he hears that we went and saved the Darbringer kid."

Dekard was sitting on his bed when the Hazekillers finally kicked down the door. As he stood up and brushed himself off he said, "Finally…. I didn't think you guys were ever going to come. Why did it take you three days to find me? It should have only taken one!"

"Hold on, sir. We need to check your blood for any kind of chemical weapons."

"Fine, fine. Make it quick, though; I'm ready to go home."

"It won't take a minute, sir," the Hazekiller said as he stabbed a needle into Dekard's arm and drew some blood. He then took the blood to a machine that another one of the Hazekillers was carrying and they put it into the machine to be analyzed. A moment later, the other Hazekiller cried, "it's as he thought, sir! He is an Allomancer!"

At hearing this Dekard looked up with worry in his face and saw the two Hazekillers level their weapons at him. "Wait! What! As who thought! No you can't do this to me! I am Dekard Darbringer, heir to the Darbringer legacy!"

At that moment what Ai had been telling him over the past few days finally dawned on him as the truth, and he knew that he was staring down the barrel of the end of his life. He closed his eyes in acceptance of his fate; at least he wouldn't be an Allomancer anymore. Then he heard the shot fire and felt nothing. So this is what it feels like to die… like a void of numbing nothingness…

"Dek! Come on!" Then he opened his eyes to see those same green eyes staring at him again.

What was it that made those eyes seem like they offered some kind of salvation from his agony? As he was finally able to break free of the piercing gaze of Ailyie's eyes, he noticed that she was holstering a smoking pistol and the other Hazekiller was falling to the ground at Sev's feet in a broken pile. "Wha…What's going on?"

"We're here to save you, kid," Sev said as he looked back behind him. "And we probably shouldn't linger. Come on, Ai, it's time to go. More Hazekillers are coming through the doors downstairs."

"Come with us, Dek…"

"Why would you want to help me? Everyone else here can see that I detest you, and that you shouldn't trust me. Why do you insist on trying to help me?"

"Because I see something different in you than they do, and you don't have anywhere else to go besides with us… If you try to go back home then they will kill you," she said as she pointed at the dead Hazekillers' bodies.

Reluctantly, Dekard followed Ai and Sev out of the room and down the hall towards the hidden exit in the back. Not two seconds after leaving the door, Camis appeared seemingly out of nowhere and handed him a vial of solution.

"Drink." Dekard just stared at him blankly. "Drink...it...now! You now know that these Hazekillers will kill you too, and though I wouldn't mind seeing that I couldn't do that to Ai. So drink this and get some strength up. It is a pewter solution and it will let you help us get out of here."

Dekard, after a brief war with himself, finally made the decision and downed the vial of solution. He immediately felt the unusual feeling of reservoir in his stomach. He reached within himself and began to burn it, and suddenly he felt less fatigued and much stronger. When they finally found the hidden exit they also found a very small contingent of Hazekillers scouring the hallway.

Sev stuck out his arm to stop the group and said, "We need to do this as quietly as possible. I'll handle this." As he began to stalk forward into the darkened hallway a hand grabbed his shoulder and stopped him. He turned to see Dek, of all people, crouched down behind him with an unusually determined expression on his face.

"Hold on Sev. I know that you know you can't do this that quietly on your own. You may want to protect them," he said has he nodded at Cam and Ai. "But you will only get them hurt if you try to do this alone. I will help you. The Hazekillers are now my enemies, as hard as that is to believe…"

"So be it. I'll take the right side of the hall and you take the left. Are you sure you can handle this?"

"I may not look it but I was trained as a Hazekiller and am quite a competent fighter."

"That's not what it looked like the night we saw you get the stuffing beat out of you," Cam chimed in.

"I was a little inebriated that night and I got jumped. I'll be doing the jumping tonight and I suggest you watch closely because I will probably be done dispatching these guys before you even understand what is going on."

At that Dek turned and sprinted down the hallway with Sev not far behind him to the right. As soon as the four Hazekillers at the end of the hallway heard the noise rushing down the hall it was too late. The closest Hazekiller to Dek turned around just in time to see Dek jump-kick off the wall and punch him in the head, shattering the helmet underneath his pewter enhanced punch. On the other side, not a moment later, Sev kicked in the knee of the man on his side of the hall and twisted his neck in one fluid motion. The two remaining Hazekillers didn't fare much better; as the first one Dek attacked was still falling to the ground, they both had their ribs cracked and their necks broken. As quickly as the carnage began it had ended, and Ai and Cam were on their way down the hall to the secret exit in the wall.

"Uggh...," Sev grunted as he tried to open up the wall. "This is where the exit is but I can't seem to get it to budge." Then Dekard walked up beside him and grabbed the wall as well. "Let me give you a hand." Each of them flared what pewter they had left in their systems and tore the wall free to reveal a door. They quickly opened the door and passed through it without looking back, and Dek thought to himself, I can't believe that they actually tried to kill me… How could this happen to me? I am the heir to the Darbringer legacy. I was supposed to take over my father's throne… What did I do to deserve to have my entire life ripped out of my hands like this….?

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